Process of road building



A rifl 8 1924.

p M. L. ONEIL PROCESS OF ROAD BUILDING Filed March 14. 1922 Fig. 2.

W/fnesses.

Apr. 8, 1924.-

PATENT OFF'IQE.

UR'I? L. ONEIL, OF FORT SHAW, MONTANA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ROBERT G.DAY, OF GREAT FALLS, MONTANA, AND ONE-HALF TO MARTHA J. ONEIL, 01 SUNRIVER, MONTANA.

rnocnss or ROAD BUILDING.

Application m March 14, 1922. Serial No. 548,748.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MURT L. ONEIL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Fort Shaw, in the county of Cascade and State of Montana,have invented certain new and usefullmprovements in Processes of RoadBuilding, of which the followingv is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention 'relates to rocesses for building roads, more especial ygravel and sand roads, and one of its ob ects is to agitate the gravelso as to work the larger pebbles or stones to a position where they maythereafter be readily worked to the bottom of the road.

.Another object of the invention is 'to agitate the surface of theremodeled road so as to extract any large stones near the surface andthereafter work the same to-' waril the outside-edge of the crown of'theroa Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent fromthe following description when taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a partial section through a sub-grade, showin the gravelroad in elevation as formed y processes now in use.

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing one of the steps of my process, and

Figure 3 is a similar view, showing the various positions of thedifferent sizes of gravel in the completed road.

In building gravel roads the ideal formation is to have the large sizestones along the bottom and at the edges of the'road, then a layer ofthe next smaller size gravel, andso on to the surface of the road, whichshould be composed of the finest gravel only. To this end it has beenthe usual practice to screen the gravel into various ades and then placeit in layers on the roa but quite often after using this expensiverocess the ideal condition is not attaine for the reason that theprocess of spreading and dragging necessary to secure a true and umformsurface tends to work the fine material to the bottom, leaving thecoarse particles on top, thus a ain roducing a condition exactly opposeto t e ideal. By the use of the hereinafter described process theexensive process of screenmg the gravel can 0 dispensed with and at thesame time a road is built having substantially the ideal formationheretofore referred to.

Where my process is to be used in connection with rebuilding a gravelroad which has become hardened and compacted by much usage, etc., theaggregates. are first loosened by means of a scarifier in a manner wellunderstood by those skilled in the art of road building. After thegravel is loosened in this manner a blade grader is drawn therethroughby a caterpillar or other tractor. In this step of the process the bladeis set at an acute angle with the direction of travel with two or threefeet'of the forward end of the blade fpartly buried in the gravel, theremainder o the blade being useful in pushing the gravel forward and toone side. One, two or more round trips are made with the blade grader,depending on the width of the gravel surface and the size and,percentageof the larger size stones. By this method the gravel is thoroughly mixedand is formed into one or two ridges paralleling the center line of theroad. During this process of building up the ridge or ridges the largersize stones tend to run ahead of the smaller aggregates 4 and,therefore, take positions at the base of the ridges, asindicated by thenumerals 1, 2 and 3 in Figures 2 and 3. Of course, the more the materialis worked in this manner, the greater will be the degree of separationbetween the various grades .of the material.

After the ridges are formed' as shown in Figure 2 it is preferable,though not always necessary, to agitate the surface of tie ridges bydrawing a scarifier, rake or other toothed apparatus along the top ofthe ridges, thereby further aiding in bringing the larger size stones tothe surface.

The gravel being laced in the condition just described, the lads graderis again brought into use. The grader is drawn a number of times alongthe rid es, the blade being being set so asto gra ually spread thegravel back over the sub-grade. ere again the larger sizestonestraveling faster than the smaller; ones reach the su -grade firstand thereby form the base of the gravel road, the next smaller sizestones covering the former, and so on, the fine gravel forming the u persurface of the road.

After t e ridges have been worked back in the manner'just described, itis, of course, possible that some large stones may remain near thesurface, and it is, therefore, advisable, though not always necessary,to draw a scarifier or other toothed apparatus over the suface 'of theroad, thereby agitating the gravel to the depth of one or two inches,which will bring any of the remaining large stones to the surface of theroad. The blade grader ma then be drawn over the surface, moving t elarger stones to the edge and base of the road. In these last trips ofthe blade grader. any soft spots remaining are found by the weight ofthe tractor and are filled in by the material carried by the blade ofthe grader. It may be here stated that during the respreading operationa surplus of crown is carried on the surface whlch is graduallydlminished as the surface approaches'the proper cross section, thepurpose being to reserve enough of the fine material to cover the largesize stones toward the edge of the road.

While the foregoing process has been described in connection withrebuilding roads, it is, of course, to be understood that the same maybe as well used in new road construction and with equally beneficialresults. In either case a binder, such as clay or the like, may be usedif necessary; this is done by spreading the clay over the gravel beforethe process begins.

In Figure 1 of the drawing the numerals 5 and 6 indicate hard and softspots, respectively, which necessarily result from an indiscriminatemixing of the various sizes of stones forming the gravel roadbed.

In accordance with the patent statutes, I have described what'I nowbelieve to be the best embodiment of the invention, but I do not Wish tobe understood thereby as limiting myself or the scope of the invention,as many changes and modifications may be made without departing from thespirit of the invention; all such I aim to include in the scope of theap ended claims.

l-Vhat I claim as new and esire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A process of building gravel roads, which includes blading thematerial into one or more ridges, whereby a portion of the larger stonesdescend to the bottom of the ridge or ridges, and then blading thematerial of the ridges so as to respread the gravel.

over the road bed, thereby causing practically all of the larger stonesto descend to the road bed.

2. A process of building ravel roads, which includes adding a bin ingmaterial to the gravel, mixing the gravel andbinding material by bladingthe same into one or more ridges, whereby a portion of the larger stonesdescend to the bottom of the ridge or ridges, and then blading thematerial of the ridges so as to respread it over the road bed, therebycausing practically all of the larger stones to descend to the road bed.

3. A process of building roads, including the reserving of a portion. ofthe fine material for the surface of the road by means of blading thematerial into one or more ridges so as to cause a portion of the largerstones to descend to the base of the ridge or ridges, and then graduallyblading the material to proper cross-section, whereby the larger stonesfirst reach the sub-grade, leaving a large portion of the fine materialfor the surface.

4. A process of building gravel roads, which includes working the gravelinto a longitudinal ridge, agitating the surface of the ridge, andgradually respreading the gravel over the roadbed.

5. A process of building gravel roads or the like, which includesworking the gravel into a ridge, respreading the gravel over the roadbedto form a crown, agitating the surface of the crown, and moving thepebbles thus brought to the surface to the edge of the crown.

6. A process of building gravel roads, which includes blading the gravelinto one or more ridges, agitating the surface of the ridges, graduallyblading the ridges to respread the gravel over the sub-grade of the roadto form a crown, and agitating the surface of the crown.

7. A process of building gravel roads, which includes working the gravelinto one or more ridges, gradually blading the ridges to respread thegravel over the sub-grade of the road to form a crown, agitating thesurface of the crown, and removing the stones brought to the surface bysuch agitation.

8. A process of rebuilding gravel roads, which includes scarifying thesurface of the road, blading the loosened gravel into one or moreridges, gradually respreading the gravel over the sub-grade of the roadto form a crown, and agitating the surface of the crown.

MURT L. ONEIL.

